Pel-Air Westwind Ditched off Norfolk Island

[Anthony J]

Quite amazing! Norfolk gets some dreadful weather and it is no fun when you don't have fuel to go elsewhere.

CareFlight/Pel-Air Medical Evacuation Incident - Samoa to Melbourne
Thursday, 19 November 2009


A CareFlight medical evacuation flight operated by Pel-Air Aviation from Apia (Western Samoa) to Melbourne was scheduled to land at Norfolk Island for a planned fuel stop on Wednesday evening when it encountered deteriorating weather conditions.

After several unsuccessful approaches and with diminishing fuel, the pilot-in-command, Captain Dominic James, made the decision to carry out a controlled landing onto the water off the coast of Norfolk Island.

http://www.rex.com.au/MediaAndPressC...?nid=224&page=

[Grahame Hutchison]

The mid wing and high rear mounted engine configuration of the Westwind would probably help in a water landing, however this is simply an amazing example of airmanship from the PIC and co-pilot (another Hudson example). They should be extremely proud of their achievement, patient, passengers and crew all safe after ditching in poor weather.

[Chris B.]

...and to ditch at night! Well done to the crew!

[Andrew P]

wonder why they didn't have an alternate????

[Steve Jones]

I'm surprised this isn't a major media story. In a way it should be - a successful ditching at night in the ocean is in some ways just as impressive (if not more so) as the Hudson landing (granted, in this case, they would still have had engine power it seems)

[Mick F]

It is quite possible Andrew, that at the time of departure, Norfolk Island didn't require an alternate. It wouldn't be the first time this has happened. Perfect example is last night here in Mt Isa, a storm was bearing down on the airport, dumping rain, and they didn't ammend the forecast to show the possibility of thunderstorms, until it was actually happening!

Not knowing what the TAF (Terminal Area Forecast) actually said, it's hard to even speculate what the series of events that occurred are.

A job well done by the crew, under very trying circumstances. It would certainly make you sink down in your seat and fear come over you when you realise you have no way of landing, and no way of being able to divert anywhere else.

Mick

[Owen H]

Its always a brave move to congratulate a crew for a good job until there has been at least some level of investigation... a few airlines have found that out the hard way. Certainly not saying there was anything dodgy happening here, and on the face of it it appears they got caught in a bad situation and did extremely well. They've successfully put in in the water and everyone has got out, which is commendable no-matter why they had to do it. Well done.

[Mark Grima]

Its creeping up the list of news stories . Although not sure why we need to know the PIC was in the Cleo Bachelor of the Year!

http://www.smh.com.au/national/pilot...1119-inrr.html

Good effort to that in the dark.

[Chris Griffiths]

Originally Posted by Mark Grima

Although not sure why we need to know the PIC was in the Cleo Bachelor of the Year!

Because it sells newspapers and web page views...

[Mark Grima]

Except its not in the headline! Paragraph 6 doesn't sell anything

Anyway getting this back on track. I was thinking about the incident investiagtion that the ATSB will now embark on. If this is as cut and dry as it seems, will they look at reasons why there were no back up airport options or if ditching was really needed etc etc.

Cheers

M